IndianFolk

Hookah, Drinks and Chill ─ Modern Notions of Fun

Work needs to be balanced with a gush of rejuvenation, not just so that the mind can come back to work with greater focus, but also because human beings need to enjoy their lives and spend quality time with friends and relatives. This is essential for personal growth and peace in one’s domestic life. Leisure and fun, therefore, need to be mixed with the usually more monotonous and serious work life of an individual. The meaning of fun has varied across ages. Every period and society has had its own notion of entertainment and fun, based on the values and the available resources in a particular society. The meanings and connotations are also different based on the social class or economic affluence of the individual concerned.

For instance, the kind of leisure activities that were available to the emperors of an ancient period were proportional to the immense resources at their disposal, and could in no circumstance match the kind of options that were available to the peasantry of the same period. It also goes without saying that gender was a significant determinant in the kind of leisure activities different individuals could indulge in. Leisure and fun have become particularly necessary in the kind of hectic and stressed lifestyle that the millennials lead today. Be it a student or a professional, the work is immensely exhausting and extracting, both physically and mentally. This is the reason why the need for leisure and social interaction become all the more significant today.

A lot of corporate and multinational companies understand the need for relaxation and leisure and focus on various methods like annual trips for its employees. However, the activities and ideas associated with modern day ‘fun’ seems to depict certain flaws in the perceptions of the modern generation and their lifestyle. For most millennials today, fun means frequenting pubs, discos, and parties that cannot pass without featuring alcohol, hookah or other related things. A specific kind of music that involves loud beats gets all of us grooving in these dark smoke-filled places we call discs. Now, while certainly tastes and preferences can vary, and there is definitely nothing wrong in dancing to a certain kind of music, what is worrying is the weird obsession with addictives like hookah.

It almost seems as if fun has become incomplete without their presence, and what is worse is that these have become mandatory means of social interaction today. So much so that youngsters who have a taste against hookah or alcohol and loud music, find it difficult to make friends or maintain friendships. It seems unfortunate that a bunch of youngsters belonging to the new generation are unable to cherish relationships and interactions over, say, a glass of roohafza or rasna. Most youngsters are unable to set their limits and as a result tend to get addicted to these habits which eventually leads to them spoiling their lives. Another worrying aspect related to this is the practice of labelling that occurs almost simultaneously.

A general perspective is that people who indulge in activities such as these are ‘cool’ or ‘chill’, and this to the exclusion of others who differ on this. Such notions create stereotypes and stigmas, and act as hurdles in the process of smooth and healthy interaction in society. In order to feel included, most youngsters indulge in these activities mainly due to peer pressure. What can also be observed is that when the young generations are getting more addicted to this lifestyle and trends that draw heavily from the western notions of recreation, they are also getting distanced from the traditional activities and festivals to a great extent. This may not be true in all cases, but it does hold relevant in the case of a lot of them. Every society is distinct from another in its norms and ways. However, obsession with particular manners that is detrimental to health, often to the extent of excluding people who do not comply with similar interests, is certainly not a very healthy mentality of the modern society and demands introspection on our part.